𝙍𝙚𝙙 𝙇𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩

Chapter 8. Bianca

The two of us leave the hotel and go outside to see Ian already here, parked in a black BMW with tinted back windows.

"Good morning miss Perez, Salem." He says with a smile after rolling down the window and looking over at us.

"Morning. Hope you didn't wait long." I say with a light smile, walking closer to open the door to the back of the car. Before I reach the handle Salem steps in, opening the door for me. I look at him for a moment, really wanting to say that I do, in fact, have hands and can open doors for myself, but his usual analytical gaze seems to have softened a teeny tiny bit and I decide not to be an asshole.

I get into the backseat behind Ian and Salem closes the door for me before walking around the car and sitting in the back with me.

"Shall we go to the office, miss?" Ian asks as he looks over at me through the rear view mirror.

"The office? No, it's too early, we're getting breakfast." I say like it's common sense. Ians eyes widen slightly and he let's out a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah, breakfast, of course, I'm sorry. Where should we go?" 

I glance at Ian and Salem before leaning back in my seat.

"You two are from Washington, I trust your tastes. Just take me somewhere with good food." I say with a light shrug, and they both look at me like I asked them to detonate a bomb.

After a moment of silence Ian gave me a quick nod. Salem leaned over to take the phone from the front of the car and put in an address before putting it back, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't glance at his ass in my face. There's something weird with how he interacts with me, or around me. Like he hates me, finds me annoying, but can't stop looking. I suppose he sees me as a car crash, something he shouldn't be looking at, but not being able to turn away at the same time.

When Salem sits back with a sigh, man spreading enough that our knees touch though I have my legs crossed, I try to glance at the phone in the front to see where we're going but he puts his hand on my shoulder and gently pushes me back into the seat.

"That's dangerous." He mutters as if it would be a secret, something I didn't already know. I look at him, unamused, and pull out my phone, texting nonna I'm alive and well.

After a couple of minutes of driving we stop at a nice looking diner with the name Betty's Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner! on a sign. It seems to be a family owned diner, small, but very cute and homey. Ian turns off the car and the three of us step out. After I open my door and step out myself, I can see Salem with a stern stare, his hand outstretched towards the door handle, looking at me.

He wanted to open the door for me, huh?

I think with a light smile on my face before motioning for him and Ian to walk next to me as we enter the diner. The few clients that are there look at us with confused stares since we look kind of out of place but I ignore that and go sit down at a free table for four. Ian and Salem stand for a bit before carefully also sitting down, both on the other side of the table with Salem right in front of me.

Soon enough a waiter comes by, a young boy, probably not even eighteen, and he hands us the menus.

"Thank you." I say with a light smile, meeting his eyes and making his face go red as he stutters out a quiet no problem and leaves to let us pick.

I open the menu and skim over the choices, settling on a grilled cheese with ham sandwich and a cup of coffee before setting the menu back down on the table, looking over at my bodyguards.

"What are you two getting?" I ask purely out of curiosity. Salem opens his mouth a little, but before he can speak up Ian interrupts.

"I'm getting the english breakfast, and Salems probably gonna get coffee and a chocolate breakfast muffin. It's his go-to." He says with a grin.

I glance at Salem who presses his lips together and looks down at the menu. I can't read him, which is very annoying to me. I give Ian a curt nod at his answer and see our waiter approaching with a smile.